Learn to say "no" to customers "!

This article only represents my personal point of view. You are welcome to make a decision!

Today, a friend asked me this question on msn:
The customer requested that the report format be customized. If writing a report designer by yourself is too complicated, is there any good solution?

So I asked: What is custom report format? (I initially thought it was the specified report export format .) My friend said: the customer needs to design the report by himself, and the requirement should be as simple as possible, so that only Office users can use the report ...)

I am wondering, why is there such a requirement? Isn't it necessary to make a Crystal Report ?! How can there be such customers? Why didn't he buy a foreign report design system? How can there be a report system for Office users only? Microsoft Excel also requires a lot of training for users to make reports. One problem after another popped out of my mind (fortunately there is no buffer overflow, huh, huh)

I told him clearly: What can't I do, or what should I do for developers ?! Afterwards, I suggest him persuade the customer that after highlighting the development cost and the maintenance cost, there is also the personnel training cost! For example, Microsoft Excel is simple enough. Microsoft has spent a lot of manpower to develop this product, but so far, how many people can use Excel to make a report without using Excel? I believe you have seen a lot of Office training outside, not to teach people how to use Word and Excel, the cost of such excellent and simple software training is so high. What's more, what about the report design system? In a back-to-end discussion, even if we can do this, even if we have made such a system, how many common users can use this system to make reports? I believe this is definitely not the majority of trainees!

Therefore, this requirement is completely unreasonable and can be regarded as an unreasonable requirement of the customer. It must be shot at the beginning, and do not give the customer any hope. Otherwise, programmers will suffer in the end. In fact, overtime is caused in many cases. The project manager or architect mistakenly evaluates the technical feasibility and labor, as a result, developers had to follow a plan that could not have been completed within the specified time. By the end of the Schedule, the boss asked programmers to work overtime! Of course we do not rule out some low-efficiency developers, but I believe this is definitely a minority. If there are 10 members in the team and 2 members often work overtime, we can say that the efficiency of these two members needs to be improved. However, if 10 members work overtime every day, this is a problem with management or planning! In many cases, developers can only swallow your breath!

As a leader or project manager, you should always think differently. How much can you do if you are a programmer? Can you do it with the technology you know? Otherwise, even if the business is discussed, there will only be a series of problems: programmers will scold you for spam leadership and do not understand management at all; programmers can only work overtime helplessly, at the same time, your cost has also gone up (except for those who are black-hearted bosses, I hate bosses who don't pay overtime !); The complaints from programmers will inevitably affect the quality and progress of the Code. This will only form a vicious circle. Once it cannot be completed within the specified time, the customer will complain, and may even ask the company to compensate for the losses, for the company, such losses are very serious!

Although we often say that customers are God! But come back and think about what god treats us? God cannot do anything for us to help them. Are we God's father? Of course not! In fact, customers treat us as God. They always think that any requirement is just a piece of cake for our developers. We are omnipotent in their eyes, as long as they put forward the demand, we can certainly achieve it. Just like I used to develop technical support at the Technical Support Center of a company, customers often say, "are you not from Microsoft? Why is there something unknown? Help me solve it !" If it weren't for survey, we really wanted to say to our customers: We're not God! We are not omnipotent! If you can't do it, it doesn't mean we can do it or we can do it right away. Just give us some time.

Many bosses or project managers will say that if I say "no" to the customer, isn't there any business ?! What should I do with my performance ?! Actually, no. There are a lot of tips to say "no", instead of asking you to help the customer as soon as they come up: your needs are too unreasonable, so we can't do it! In fact, in general, we can help the customer to reason why we cannot achieve this demand? What is the impact of our changes on the cost of your company? What about future maintenance and training. I believe that most people will change their views after hearing such well-founded analysis. After all, what customers are most concerned about is software quality and cost. Of course, if there are a few boring customers, I don't think it is necessary to talk about it. We have done our best!